After we consider creating protected areas, we regularly consider preserving the nice wilderness areas the place (to borrow Samuel Goldwyn’s line) the hand of man has by no means set foot. Mountain ranges, huge forests, limitless prairie grassland… that’s what we have to shield.
However the actuality is that the majority Canadians reside in city or “peri-urban” areas, and these inhabitants want nature as a lot as anyone. Municipalities (particularly in southern Canada) are literally dwelling to a few of the best biodiversity within the nation.
But city and peri-urban conservation areas are poorly represented in Canada’s stock of protected areas. And few municipalities are actively attempting to contribute to Canada’s 30×30 goal (to guard 30 % of our lands and waters by 2030).
That’s why Nature Canada has joined forces with the Alliance of Canadian Land Trusts (ACLT), BC Nature, Ontario Nature, and Wildlands League in a marketing campaign to encourage municipalities to create protected areas inside their boundaries and contribute to the 30×30 goal. Our Municipal Protected Areas Coalition will assist not less than eight pilot municipalities throughout Canada who need to acknowledge or enhance their protected areas. As a part of that effort, we’ll develop a toolkit and finest practices to assist these pilot municipalities (and future ones) obtain their targets.
The extra nature a metropolis has, the simpler it breathes.
Municipalities within the Vanguard
Municipalities are effectively positioned to assist additional the 30×30 goal. For one factor, they’re on the entrance strains of experiencing the dangerous results of biodiversity loss, and perceive the very important want for city nature. Furthermore, as native governments, they’re able to apply built-in planning (whereby transport, buildings, land use and waste providers operate as components of a system). Because the Group for Financial Cooperation and Improvement (OECD) notes, municipalities typically set sustainability targets which are extra bold than these of nationwide governments. In sum, municipalities will probably be key gamers in serving to carry the nationwide aim of 30×30 right down to a neighborhood scale, and connecting it to close by areas that residents know and love.
The position of municipalities bought an enormous enhance at COP15, the U.N. biodiversity convention held in December 2022 in Montreal. Within the lead-up to the convention, the internet hosting metropolis issued the Montreal Pledge, which invited cities from everywhere in the world to make a dedication to biodiversity. The pledge commits cities to fifteen actions similar to integrating biodiversity into territorial and regulatory planning, growing the quantity of inexperienced and blue areas and bettering equitable entry to them.
Nature Canada already has a robust working relationship with municipalities by means of our nationwide campaigns similar to Chook Pleasant Cities, Naturehood and Nature-Based mostly Local weather Options. We’ve seen what number of cities and cities, as soon as they’re given the correct instruments, are extremely motivated to take motion on defending nature. Our coalition may help your municipality be acknowledged as a pacesetter in dialog and a contributor to the nationwide motion of 30×30.
There are two most important sorts of areas that could possibly be included within the 30×30 stock of protected areas:
Protected areas correct: areas which are devoted and managed to attain long-term conservation of nature.
Different efficient area-based conservation measures (OECM): Areas ruled and managed in ways in which shield biodiversity even when their main objective isn’t nature conservation.
Listed below are some actions that municipalities can take:
- Endorse the Montreal Pledge.
- Make a dedication to supporting the 30×30 conservation goal.
- Request a member of our Municipal Protected Areas Coalition to offer a delegation to your council.
- Set up a municipal environmental advisory committee.
- Ask for assist from one of many organizations in our coalition to attain your 30×30 goal.
- Have interaction with native First Nations and different essential stakeholders to attain bold, shared conservation targets.
- Assess lands for eligibility as Protected Areas or Different Efficient Conservation Areas.
- Develop sturdy conservation mechanisms to guard your pure areas.
- Shield new lands, typically in partnership with organizations within the coalition’s community.
- Work with the coalition’s community to construct up native biodiversity conservation information and understanding.
Protected areas inside municipalities might not essentially soak up large swaths of wilderness, as nationwide parks do, however small parcels can add up shortly. What’s essential now could be to begin municipalities alongside the trail in the direction of 30×30. Within the phrases of Scott Mullenix, Director of Communications at Nature Canada, “child steps could make massive footprints.” It’s time to make sure that the exhausting work of municipalities in defending nature can contribute to a nationwide effort.
Please see our web page on Municipal Protected Areas for extra info, and please contact us if you understand of a neighborhood space that could possibly be protected.
